Alternative ETFs in the Total Bond Market Category

Analyst Report

This ETF offers broad-based exposure to investment grade U.S. bonds, making ILTB a building block for any investor constructing a balanced long-term portfolio as well as a potentially attractive safe haven for investors pulling money out of equity markets. While ILTB can potentially be a one stop shop for fixed income exposure, a close look at the composition of this fund is advised. Many may find the significant allocations to MBS and Treasuries somewhat insufficient for their return objectives; increased corporate bond exposure through LQD may result in a better balance and more attractive return. Furthermore, the fund only has securities that are maturing in ten years or longer. While this will help to boost the overall yield for the fund, it will also make it more susceptible to default and interest rate risk as well. While ILTB includes hundreds of individual securities, this ETF actually only holds a fraction of the bonds that make up the underlying benchmark; the sampling strategy employed avoids illiquid issues, but may lead to tracking error. ILTB has reasonable levels of liquidity-- there are more liquid options out there-- but the expense ratio for this fund is pretty low and is among the lowest in the Category. However, for investors looking to avoid compounding costs and tracking error, the broad-based BND may be a better option for U.S. fixed income exposure, although ILTB is certainly a viable option for those seeking longer-dated securities in their portfolio.

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Realtime Rating

Realtime Rating Summary

The adjacent table gives investors an individual Realtime Rating for ILTB on several different metrics, including liquidity, expenses, performance, volatility, dividend, concentration of holdings in addition to an overall rating. The "A+ Metric Rated ETF" field, available to ETFdb Pro members, shows the ETF in the Total Bond Market with the highest Metric Realtime Rating for each individual field. To view all of this data, sign up for a free 14-day trial for ETFdb Pro. To view information on how the ETFdb Realtime Ratings work, click here.

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Charts

The following charts can be customized to display historical performance in a number of different formats,
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The following chart also includes the option to compare the performance of ILTB
relative to other ETFs and benchmarks or to include indicators such as Bollinger Bands, relative strength,
and moving averages.

Trading

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